Show or hide email folders in your Hotmail account

The new Hotmail now gives you the ability to collapse or expand groups of items in the Sidebar, with the same "disclosure triangle" you are already familiar with if you use Windows Live Mail or Windows 7, both of which use the same metaphor (and triangle button) to expand or collapse groups of folders in a left navigation pane. Among other things, this lets you show or hide the email folders displayed on the left side of the screen - a godsend when you have accumulated new folders for just about every organizational topic over the years.

Show hidden folders in the new Hotmail (Unhide collapsed)

The ability to hide your folders obviously implies that you can display them back: just click on the same triangle (which changed orientation and color after you hid your folders), and Hotmail will expand that Sidebar "Folders" category again, showing all your standard and custom folders on the left, usually as a scrollable list if you have attempted to stay organized!

Hide email folders on the side in Hotmail

Follow these steps to hide your folders:

• If needed, go through Hotmail sign in to access your account
• Once you are in your inbox, look at the left pane
• Notice that each group below your inbox shows a triangle next to it (see screenshot, with expanded and collapsed Sidebar items).
• Click on the triangle next to "Folders"
• Hotmail will hide all email folders on the left, including not just the standard email folders (Junk, Drafts, Sent, and Deleted), but also automatically hide any custom folder you have created in your Hotmail account.
• As soon as you do, your emails and inbox look much more manageable!

Now that you know how to hide your email folders, you can leave them that way until you need to access the emails contained in one of them, and afterwards click back the triangle to hide all folders out of view once more.

Tip: Windows Live Hotmail will "remember" your setting between sessions, and re-apply your preference - either keep all email folders showing (default), or will automatically hide them if this is how you had them last time you logged in.